SEA/SEIU Local 1984 donated $5,000 to the memorial fund last summer. Eleven of those listed on the Public Works Employees Memorial were state Department of Transportation employees.
On Wednesday, a new memorial outside the Department of Transportation on Hazen Drive will be dedicated recognizing public works employees who’ve died in the line of duty.
The Public Works Employees Memorial features symbolic tributes: 24 shovels to represent the uninterrupted services that public works employees provide and four granite stones to correspond to the four seasons that the employees labor in. It also includes the names of 36 men, with one as recent as 2016 and others dating to the 1890s. Twelve were employees of the state and another 15 worked for the city of Manchester. Others hailed from towns such as Antrim, Northfield, Rye and Wolfeboro. The common thread – what this memorial aims to illustrate – is the inherent danger in the work these employees do.
“Public works employees understand that there’s risk involved in what we do every day,” said Dan Brennan, an SEA/SEIU Local 1984 chapter leader at DOT and a member of the committee behind the memorial. “It’s important that we recognize the sacrifice these people made, but also recognize what everyone who does these jobs every day faces.”
The dedication – which is set for 9 a.m. Wednesday at 7 Hazen Drive in Concord – comes nearly 10 years to the day after Gov. John Lynch signed the bill authorizing a committee to oversee the project. Here is the full list of names on the monument:
- Etienne Duval, Manchester City Street Commission (1893)
- Timothy Sheehan, City of Manchester, Street Commission (1896)
- Fortuant Allaire, City of Manchester Street Commission (1897)
- James Costello, City of Manchester Street Commission (1898)
- John Conroy, City of Manchester Street Commission (1898)
- Arthur Coleman, Manchester Street Commission (1910)
- Patrick Griffin, Manchester Highway Department (1950)
- David Nelson, Town of Charlestown (1950)
- Ephriam J. “Steve” Rivers, NHDOT Bureau of Traffic (1959)
- David Kemmeur, Manchester Highway Department (1956)
- Leo Scannell, NHDOT Highway Maintenance (1965)
- Luchien Sarette, Manchester Highway Department (1965)
- Irenee Boissoneault, Manchester Highway Department (1969)
- Rudolph Demurs, City of Dover DPW (1971)
- Raymond LeBlanc, Manchester Highway Department (1971)
- Frederick Scroggins, NHDOT, District 5/Londonderry (1971)
- Carl Richardson, NHDOT Highway Maintenance (1973)
- Archie Page, Town of Loudon (1973)
- Emery D. Eaves, Turnpikes – State Public Works (1973)
- William Jennings, Manchester Water Works (1977)
- Albert Pinard, Manchester Highway Department (1977)
- Paul H. Paradis Sr., Town of Rye (1982)
- Charles E. Damour, Town of Henniker Waste Water Treatment Plant (1985)
- George Prive, Manchester Department of Public Works (1994)
- Daniel Carswell, NHDOT Bureau of Turnpikes (1997)
- Bruce Harting, Town of Wolfeboro (2002)
- Alphonse “Al” Napolitano, NHDOT Bridge Operator (2004)
- Robbie Gonyer, NHDOT Highway Maintenance, District 1 (2004)
- Stephen McKinley, NHDOT Highway Maintenance, District 2 (2005)
- Ryan Haynes, Town of New London (2005)
- Stephen Blood, Town of Antrim Highway Department (2009)
- Milton Reed, NHDOT Highway Maintenance, District 3 (2011)
- Jim “Richard” Hayes, NHDOT Bridge Operator (2012)
- Jeffrey Robinson, Manchester Water Works (2012)
- Thomas E. Wooten, Northfield Department of Public Works (2016)
- Richard D. Milliken, State Highway Department Survey Team
You can read more about the process and who has been involved on the Department of Transportation website.